Revelle Award goes to SDSU biologist

A San Diego State University marine biology professor who has been working to enrich kelp forests and seagrass beds in Southern California has been named this year's winner the Roger Revelle Perpetual Award, a prestigious prize given to a San Diegan who has improved man's ability to co-exist with the marine environment.

Kevin Hovel was given the award on Thursday at the San Diego Oceans Foundation gala, adding his name to a list of winners that has included pioneering kelp research Paul Dayton, and Walter Munk, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography professor who is known as "the greatest living oceanographer."

Hovel earned his doctorate in 1999 at Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and went on to do postdoctoral work at the National Research Council. He then joined the faculty of SDSU, where he has specialized on such things as the conservation of marine invertebrates, and the population dynamics of the California spiny lobster.

Here is a list of the previous winners of the award, which is named after SIO's Roger Revelle, one of the world's first climate researcers.